Follow my build of a Boeing 737 simulator in my guest bedroom! You decide whether this is a healthy hobby or a total anorak obsession...

Monday, April 9, 2012

Visuals part 1

While waiting for our friends at CPFlight to get back to me on the (second) blown MIP card, I thought I'd turn my weekend attention to the external visuals. My goal for the weekend was to prototype the setup in the garage, to check on all of the dimensions and geometry. This way I'll know for sure if my plans will work, before turning the guest room completely upside down to get the rig in there.

I wanted to do this on the cheap, since it won't be used beyond the prototype. I turned to 1/2 inch PVC irrigation pipe for the framework. They run about $1.50 for a 10 foot length and the slip together fittings are cheap too. Calculating the required lengths using high school math, I came up with this:

Not the straightest of frames but it will serve my purposes. Next I taped together 3 runs of butcher paper and clamped it to the frame

Again, not perfectly flat but good enough for the prototype. In the final set up the projectors will be mounted from the ceiling. Today I can set them on the ground to check for coverage, positioning etc. Much easier to make fine adjustments here than on the top of a ladder:

From a previous posting you'll remember that I have 2 double port video cards in the FSX system. I hooked up the projectors via some HDMI cables and here is the first result:

I'm standing in the way there to give you a sense of scale - this screen is huge! The radius is 60 inches and the screen width at 220 degrees is approx. 253 inches. As you can see, I need to resize the FSX windows to get the appropriate edge overlap. I also installed a trial version of Warpalizer to blend the projector images and bend the image into shape. We had guests coming over for Easter dinner so I had to cut the tests short. The wife's given me another 24 hours of grace in the garage - I'll run more tests tonight.